Recent voting brings 13 new student representatives and progress in amending the Student Government Association constitution.
Following voting on Monday, Oct. 19, and Tuesday, Oct. 20, the results for the Student Government Association general elections and constitution ratifications were released on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at SGA’s “Party at the Polls” event. The elected representatives for each college are Addison Hummingbird as representative of the Kendall College of Arts and Sciences, Cameron Bell for the College of Engineering & Computer Science, Ty Elias for the Collins College of Business, Eli Doolen for the Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences and Julianna Ferrell for the Honors College. Residential seat winners are Colin Sheehan for Apartments, Caleb Bovell and Yati Patel for Residence Hall, Meri Hannah Moore for Greek Housing and Abigail Gordon for Commuter. Kanyinsola Ogundele and Trystan Biederman were elected as at-large senators, while Nursultan Sarsenov was elected as International Senator.
“I decided to run for the Collins College of Business Senate seat because I wanted to help the college become more involved with its students and with the rest of the university,” Elias said. “I also enjoyed being an appointed junior senator and I wanted to keep being part of SGA.” Elias stated his goal as a representative is “to make sure that any concerns that business students have are heard and promptly addressed. I also want to help make the SGA Senate a place where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas to make SGA the best it can be.” He also explained, “I was a little anxious going into Party at the Polls where the results were announced, but once they revealed the results, I was very excited that the work I had put into campaigning had all been worth it.”
Eli Doolen ran because he “wanted to get more involved with the students on campus, but a good friend of mine was also running against me for the at-large seat, so I decided I would focus my efforts on the students in my college!” Doolen stated, “I want to hear the concerns of students and find ways to improve their situations. For example, I’m looking into some sleep wellness resources for students who struggle with poor sleep.” Doolen claims he was “a little surprised” to find out he won as he had “heard good things” about his opponent, but is very happy to have been chosen.
Besides electing new officials for college and residential seats, there was a vote on changes to be made to the SGA constitution. The new constitution amendments have been passed, and according to Doolen, “The new constitution didn’t have any super major revisions that I can think of, but it fixed some continuity errors in the document and overall improved the foundation of SGA as a whole.”
The new constitution will take effect immediately upon approval from the board of trustees, who are currently reviewing the document. Newly elected officials will take office at the beginning of next semester and serve until its conclusion.
